Deep Inside Mountain Lion: 15 Hidden Features in Apple’s New OS

Apple says Mountain Lion -- the latest version of OS X, which it just released today -- boasts more than 200 new features, a daunting number even by OS revision standards. Many of the additions were covered ad nauseum when Apple revealed the OS in June, but now Mountain Lion officially ships, and it’s time to dig into the hidden nooks and crannies of the new desktop experience.

So, while Apple’s servers strain to keep up with the demand of multi-gigabyte OS downloads, take a gander at the tips we found while picking away at the minutiae of OS X 10.8. Just a word of caution before you proceed with your Mountain Lion installation: As with any major update, be sure to back up your data before you take the plunge. Also, if your computer is your main source of income, or if you’re working on a large project, it’s better to wait before updating.

With that word of caution, let’s jump right into the coolest Mountain Lion features that people aren’t yet talking about. And if you have suggestions for hidden features we haven't revealed, please share them in the comments below!

Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired

Add Twitter to Your Contacts With One Button

Prior to Mountain Lion, if you wanted to associate Twitter handles with all your friends’ contact information, you had to enter all those handles one contact card at a time. Luckily, those days are over, as the new OS introduces system-wide Twitter associations with a simple one-button click.

After you’ve set up your own Twitter account, click on the Update Contacts button to add the Twitter usernames and avatars of your friends to their contact cards (the OS will do it automatically, drawing on the email addresses and phone numbers in Twitter’s own database). Now you can tweet your friends from Contacts, Mail, or any other app that displays someone’s name -- all it takes is a simple right-click on the name you want to mention in a tweet.

Check What Your Friends Are Tweeting

Now that you have all your friends’ Twitter accounts plugged into your Contacts list, you can quickly see what they’re tweeting whenever you’re in a contact card. In the Contacts app, right-click on “Twitter” next to a contact's name and select View Tweets. The Twitter app will launch and share the latest tweets from that person’s account.

Send Files With Messages -- OMG GIFs!

The app formerly known as iMessages (and currently called Messages) will handle file transfers up to 100MB. This is a compelling method for shuttling files when you need to quickly send some something from computer to computer (though computer-to-iPhone transfers yielded poor results with files larger than 10MB).

Of course sending a 50MB file to an iPhone is ridiculous. What’s not ridiculous, however, is sending animated GIF files to iPhones -- it’s easier than ever. In the Finder, select a GIF, right-click on it, select Share>Message and choose the iMessage account of the person you wish to share magic with. Nothing says “Hi There!” like an animated GIF message from a friend.

Find Missing Applications

Don’t be alarmed if you install Mountain Lion to discover a few missing apps. They haven’t been lost entirely. They’re hiding in a secret box, and you can find them if you know where to look.

When Mountain Lion first launches and detects incompatible applications, it places the apps in a top-level directory of the startup disk called “Incompatible Software.” Granted, a dialog box appears on start-up to inform you which apps don’t meet the Mountain Lion seal of approval, but we’re betting that most people will click the box away before reading it. This just how life works.

Even better, take some time to learn which specific apps will be banished to the Incompatible Software bin. Roaring Apps maintains a vast database of OS X apps, and each piece of software is marked for its compatibility. Check this out before learning the hard way that your favorite app is appa non grata with the mountain cat.

Get to Know Gatekeeper

If you visit Wired on a regular basis, you probably don’t need much handholding when it comes to malware avoidance. That said, a tool that limits which apps can be launched via a simple double-click might be useful for family members who tend to download and install anything they’ve been sent by their good friend, the Prince of Nigeria.

By default, Mountain Lion limits what can be double-click-launched to the apps purchased in the Mac App Store, as well as apps that have been signed by developers. Anything else can still be launched manually if you right-click on the application, and select Open from the contextual menu. During an admittedly unscientific test of the apps in my own application folder, Only SugarSync -- a utility that syncs select folders over multiple Macs -- wouldn’t open unless I right-clicked and selected Open.

To change your Gatekeeper settings, head to System Preferences>Security and Privacy. Select the General tab, and click on the lock in the lower left-hand corner. After entering your password, you’ll be able to change the default.

Turn Dictation On

Apple spent a lot of time during its WWDC keynote telling the assembled audience that voice dictation for OS X is awesome. Unfortunately, however, the feature is turned off by default.

Why the automatic opt-out? We’re guessing it ties into the fact that during voice dictation, your Mac sends your spoken words to Apple’s servers for text translation. That’s right: Just like voice dictation for iOS, the Mac version of the feature only works when your computer is connected to the Internet. If you’re fine with Apple server’s listening to your voice (and certainly using that data to refine its translation engine), then Dictation is as awesome as Apple says it is. You just have to opt into the service.

Head to System Preferences>Dictation and Speech. Be sure to select the Dictation tab and turn the feature on. To enable dictation in any text field, select the field and double-tap the Function (fn) key. On the extended Apple keyboard, it’s the key to the right and above the two delete keys. On the Apple Wireless and MacBook keyboards, it’s the key in the lower left-hand corner.

Just be sure to click Done when you’ve finished any dictation so your computer won’t pick up your not-intended-for-translation conversations.

Adjust Notification Center Timing

Ah, the new Mountain Lion notification center. It’s as if the familiar iPhone notification center is making a special, guest-starring appearance on your Mac. The new Notification Center actually mirrors many of the features available in third-party application Growl. In addition to two types of on-screen notifications, all unattended notifications are stored in a drawer that can be accessed by clicking the Notification Center icon in the top-right-hand corner of the menu bar, or by swiping with two fingers from the right on a track pad.

Notification Center defaults to show Notification-enabled applications in a particular order. However, if you’re looking for the latest notifications, regardless of their app origins, at the top of the queue, head to System Preferences>Notifications, or click on the gears at the bottom of the Notifications drawer. Under the Sort Notification Center drop-down, select “By Time” from the Notification System Preferences.

Quickly Turn Off Notifications for the Day

You can quickly turn off notifications for the rest of the day by Option+clicking the Notifications Menu Bar item in the top-right-hand corner. If the icon is grayed out, it’s off. Notifications will resume the next day. Turn Notifications back on by Option+clicking the icon a second time.

Change the Notes Font

You’re probably sick of the three fonts Apple has deemed worthy of appearing in the Notes app on the iPhone. Well, you’re in luck. Changing the font of a document in the Mountain Lion version of Notes will also change it in the iOS version. The change only works with documents that have been changed in OS X. But, if it’s a note that’s edited often, it’s nice to have the option of a better font choice. And, of course, you can always use this trick to impress your friends with your “custom font selections options” in iOS.

Use Reader to Send Articles via Email

Safari’s new ability to share web pages via email is a quick and easy way to share the latest Wired news -- or an article about the proliferation of Corgis on the Internet.

But while you may be tempted to send the article as a Web Page, don’t. Use the Reader option instead. Articles sent with the Web Page option can be a formatting nightmare on any web or desktop email client that isn’t OS X Mail. Reader, however, presents a clean email that works on most platforms.

Zoom to the Top of Your Inbox

Double-tapping on the Sort By area at the top of an inbox will whisk you up to the latest emails. This is especially helpful when reading an email from a few weeks ago, then want to quickly check out the latest emails you’ve received.

Chess Is Finally Worth Playing (For Now)

The number of OS X titles in Apple’s Game Center is pretty slim right now. Actually, as of press time, there are no Game Center games for OS X in the Mac App store. This community portal for gamers started in iOS, and now lands on the desktop to realize the dream of cross-platform gaming synergy. Currently, you won’t be able to play multiplayer races of CSR Racing across both Apple operating systems, but at least you can try Apple’s cross-platform feature with a civilized game of chess.

The OS X Chess app supports Game Center, making the app actually worth opening. Unfortunately, however, the system for finding an online chess partner is archaic. Instead of offering a search field to find a friend, you have to scroll through your Game Center contacts. This is a horrible endeavor if you’re friends with more than 20 people.

Use Safari Quick Tabs

Apple is keen to have you navigate the entire OS with a track pad. This is great if you have a magic trackpad or a MacBook, but if you’re still using (gasp!) a mouse, some of Mountain Lion’s navigation shortcuts will seem out of reach.

The new Safari web browser is one of the apps that’s been supercharged for quick navigation via trackpads. But, fortunately, the most significant navigation update, quick tab switching, works fine with a few keyboard shortcuts. To enter Tab View, press Command+Shift+ (backslash). To navigate through the tabs, use the left and right arrows, and press the spacebar to bring a selected tab back into normal mode.

Use Finder Share to Send Larger Flickr Images

Flickr uploads have been available from iPhoto for a while. But, without a Flickr Pro account, iPhoto uploads are constrained to a maximum resolution of 1024x1024. This is an odd limitation considering normal Flickr uploads can be as large as 2048x2048.

But there is a workaround, as the Finder’s Share feature supports 2048x2048 images. Before you start uploading, you’ll need to set up your Flickr account in the Mail, Contacts & Calendar System Preference. Select the photo you want uploaded, and right-click. Now select Share>Flickr from the contextual menu. While you’re uploading the photo, you can add a name, description and tags from the Finder. Alas, there’s no option to see the original photo on Flickr; for that option you’ll need to upgrade to a pro account.

Where Are My iCloud Documents?

Text edit, Preview, Pages and the rest of the iWork suite all feature the ability to save documents into iCloud. Once saved there, the documents are available on any Mac with Mountain Lion with the same iCloud account.

The apps can also be shared with others via Messages, email and AirDrop. It sounds great -- if you can find your documents. Don’t go searching for a universal iCloud Document Center on your Mac. It doesn’t exist. Instead, open the application the document was saved with. Go to File>Open, and a window will appear with an iCloud tab. Click the tab and you’ll find all your iCloud-saved documents for that application.